A traditional panzanella salad gets a summer lift with gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and a simple red wine vinaigrette. Top with fresh basil for a light and delicious Italian dinner.

Growing up, you couldn’t pay me enough money to eat a tomato; it was just never going to happen. I image it was a texture thing with the pop and gush when biting into a tomato. And the taste. I was never a huge fan of the taste of tomatoes. Even with a sprinkle of salt, no thank you!

Then I was introduced to heirloom tomatoes, these changed the ball game for me. Huge and plump fruits from the vine, they have a sweeter flavor, thinner skins, and a gorgeous outward appearance. Grown during the summer months, these beauties really are some of the best vegetables harvested in hot weather. They’re juicy and super delicious. Perfect for a Panzanella salad.

A panzanella salad is an Italian bread salad. It’s usually made with day-old crusty bread and tossed with a great vinaigrette. Typically seen in Panzanella salads are tomatoes, onions, basil, and cucumbers. Another great addition to the salad are peppers, which are quite abundant during the summer months.

So how do we construct a perfect Panzanella salad? It’s all a matter of knowing how to pick the perfect ingredients! You don’t have to make your own bread, but I did (of course)! I made a simple Hearth bread from The Bread Bible (super easy to follow and amazingly delicious). Other suitable bread would be a ciabatta loaf, French loaf or even a sourdough bread. Basically, you want a good bread with a sturdy texture. I would then dry out my bread overnight and let it get stale. Some people even roast their bread in the oven, tossed in olive oil and seasoned, to give it more pizzazz.

Now for the perfect heirloom tomatoes. You want a firm and plump tomato; not too firm, but not squishy. We don’t like squishy tomatoes. Color doesn’t determine too much of the taste but it is fun to have yellows, greens, and purples going on throughout the salad. I will usually cut out the top part of the tomato that attached to the vine and go from there with cutting up the tomato. Have fun with the different shapes as they will add character to your salads. Cut quarter wedges, slices, and even half moons. I typically eat this salad with a butter knife anyway, so I’m able to have bigger than bite-sized pieces of tomato in this salad.

The unsung hero, I believe, of this salad, is simple but delicious red wine vinaigrette. There is something about pairing red wine with tomatoes that just makes sense. Don’t worry about having a super-emulsified vinaigrette; this is a rustic dish and it totally makes sense to have a “broken” dressing. If you have a store-bought vinaigrette that you just love and don’t want to make the one I’m including with the recipe, be my guest!

Here are some tips for putting this salad together so that it can be enjoyed fully. Cut all of your ingredients and marinate the vegetables with the vinaigrette in a bowl for a few hours at room temperature. Never put tomatoes in the fridge; cool temperatures mess with the inside texture of the tomatoes and alters the taste. Cover the bowl of marinating veggies and let them all hang out. The tomato juices will start to leach out into the vinaigrette which will lead to a fuller taste to the dressing. Then at the last minute, before serving, toss in your stale bread and gently coat the bread with the vinaigrette so that the bread becomes slightly softened.

There you have it! The perfect Panzanella salad full of amazing summer flavors like tomatoes, cucumbers and a killer red wine vinaigrette! Make this salad how you like it! I would definitely applaud the addition of sweet peppers, or even some mozzarella. Mmmmm delicious! I’m starting to get ideas for some new dishes just thinking about this!

Enjoy this awesome salad and let me know what other fun dishes you’d like to see me make for the summer!

God bless Italians for having a bread salad! Before I moved to California I didn’t like tomatoes either. And then we moved to a place where we would have to turn our windshield wipers on because they would drop from the trucks carrying them to grocery stores. But heirlooms are definitely the best and would be amazing in this salad!

That sounds fantastic! I love tomatoes! Nice fresh palate you bring here! It must be awesome on a hot summer day like we had over here! I’m curious how it would be with cold smoked tomatoes! Let’s give it a try!